Genesis 12:3

And I will bless them that bless thee,.... Not the priests only that should bless his children, the children of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan, but all men of all nations, and of every age, that

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee.

Those that are friends or enemies to thee shall be the same to me; a marvellous condescension and privilege. In thee, i.e. in thy Seed, as it is explained 26:4 28:14, i.e. in and through Christ, ,16,28,29; or, for thee, as the Chaldee hath it, i.e. for thy sake; or, by thee, i.e. by thy means; or, with thee, by comparing this with ,9, i.e. in the same way and manner in which thou art blessed, that is, by a fruitful faith: compare ,12,16. All families of the earth, i.e. all nations; which is to be limited to the believers of all nations, by the whole current of the Scriptures. All that shall be blessed shall be blessed by this means, and no other way.

Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.Ver. 3. And I will bless them that bless thee.] Some there are that will curse those whom God blessed; but nothing so many as they that will rise up and call them blessed. These are expressed here in the plural number; those in the singular only. "For who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" But say there be some Balaams that would curse God’ s Israel, or some Esaus that could wish them unblest again; yet God will turn Balaam’ s curse into a blessing (which is reckoned as a great favour); and he will tell Esau (if not in his ear, yet in his conscience) that Jacob is blest, "and he shall be blest." If Isaac, drawn aside by natural affection, would go about to reverse the blessing, God will cause him to "tremble very exceedingly," and so overawe him that he shall not be able to do it. But see here (as in a mirror) the wonderful love of God to his children: so dear they are unto him, that he cannot but love all that love them, and bless those that bless them. They have a powerful speech in Spain, - He that wipes the child’ s nose kisseth the mother’ s cheek. Surely, as natural parents take the kindnesses and unkindnesses showed to their children as done to themselves, so doth God. And in thee shall all families, &c.] That is, "in thy seed," as it is interpreted, Genesis 22:18. To wit, in Christ that shall take flesh of thee, as both Peter and Paul expound it, Acts 3:25 Galatians 3:9; Galatians 3:16. Hence Christ is called "the gift," and "the benefit," by an excellency, "and the desire of all nations," sent a purpose "to bless us, in turning every one of us from our iniquities".

(2, 3) Thou shalt be a blessing.—More correctly, Be thou a blessing. The promises made to Abram are partly personal and partly universal, embracing the whole world. In return for all that he abandons he is to become the founder of a powerful nation, who will honour his name, and teach the inheritors of their spiritual privileges to share in their veneration for him. But in the command to “be” or “become a blessing,” we reach a higher level, and it is the glory of Abram’s faith that it was not selfish, and in return for his consenting to lead the life of a stranger, he was to be the means of procuring religious privileges, not only for his own descendants, but also “for all families of the earth” (Heb., of the ground—the adâmâh). Not for the earth as the material universe, but solely in its connection with man. Wherever man makes his home upon it, there, through Abram, spiritual blessings will be offered him. I will bless . . . —These words indicate relations mysteriously close between Jehovah and Abram, whereby the friends and enemies of the one become so equally to the other. But in the second clause our version has not noticed an essential difference between the verbs used. They occur together again in Exodus 22:28, and are there more correctly rendered by “revile” and “curse.” The one word signifies to treat lightly and contemptuously, the other to pronounce a curse, usually in a judicial manner. We might, therefore, translate, “I will curse—pass a sentence of rejection upon—him that speaketh lightly of, or revileth thee.” In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.—Some authorities translate, “shall bless themselves;” but there is a different conjugation to express this meaning, and no reason exists for forcing it upon the text. Henceforward Abram and the nation sprung from him were to be the intermediaries between God and mankind, and accordingly revelation was virtually confined to them. But though the knowledge of God’s will was to be given through them, it was for the benefit of all the families of every race and kindred distributed throughout the habitable world, the adâmâh (Romans 3:29; Romans 10:12, &c).

Verse 3. In thee] In thy posterity, in the Messiah, who shall spring from thee, shall all families of the earth be blessed; for as he shall take on him human nature from the posterity of Abraham, he shall taste death for every man, his Gospel shall be preached throughout the world, and innumerable blessings be derived on all mankind through his death and intercession.

3. and I will bless, &c.] The blessing which Abram receives from God is to be a source of good to his friends and of evil to his foes. Observe the delicacy with which the recipients of the blessing are expressed in the plural; but of the curse in the singular (“him that curseth will I curse”). It is assumed that his friends are numerous and his foes few. curse] Cf. Genesis 27:29, “Cursed be every one that curseth thee.” in thee shall all the families of the earth, &c.] These words can be understood in two ways, according as the verb is rendered (a) passively, (b) reflexively. (a) “On account of thee the whole world shall be blessed.” In Abram is impersonated a blessing that shall become universal. The directly Messianic application of this rendering is obvious. (b) “In thy name all the families of the earth will find the true formula of benediction.” The blessing of Abram shall pass into a universal proverb. All will regard it as the best object of human wishes to participate in the happiness of Abram. The rendering would then be, “shall bless themselves.” Cf. Genesis 48:20. This rendering is probably supported by Genesis 22:18, Genesis 26:4; Psalms 72:17. Like the alternative rendering, it admits of a Messianic application in the universal recognition of the place of Abram in the Divine scheme of Redemption. In this passage, the thought which was faintly foreshadowed in the prediction of (1) the conflict between man and the power of evil in Genesis 3:15, and of (2) the privilege of the family of Shem in Genesis 9:26, becomes more definite in (3) the selection of the patriarchal family as the channel of universal blessing. 4b (P). and Abram was seventy and five years old] Comparing this statement with Genesis 11:26, we gather Abram left Haran when Terah was 145 years old. In Genesis 11:32, Terah lived to an age of 205. If so, he lived for 60 years after Abram’s departure. We should, however, naturally infer both from this verse, and from Genesis 11:32, that Terah died before Abram left Haran. We must conclude, either, that the text of the figures in Genesis 11:32 is erroneous, and should be 145; or, that Abram was born 60 years after Nahor and Haran (Genesis 11:26); or, that divergent strata of tradition have been incorporated in the narrative. The connexion of the ancestry of Israel with the Aramaeans is elsewhere indicated in chap. 24, Genesis 28:1 to Genesis 32:2, and Deuteronomy 26:5.

3. I will bless… curse — The promise is here expanded — Abram, as the man of faith, is to be identified with the divine plan for human redemption; his friends are, therefore, God’s friends, his enemies God’s enemies.